Dear_Diary _111111 -- How Much is Too Much Money? -- OWaiS on OWS
This is my Diary for 11th Nov 2011.
I am trying to understand the relationship between Money and Satisfaction. This Thought-stream, in a way, continues from the TextMovie series... "What IS Money? -- A Spiritual View". There has been sufficient study, as well as subjective experience that seems to say that Money is not good for human welfare, both when it is too little and when it is too much.
Why?
One can hazard a guess that when basic needs like, say, food and shelter are not met, one cannot be expected to be very happy. Equally, if one has made money, the be-all and end-all of life, then one's quality of life must go down drastically. This, because life is not and cannot be unidimensional, no matter how much we want it to be so. And, of course, one can not have 'too much money', without dedicating too much of their own life to making it.
The problem with money is that you can keep making it, and keep deriving some or the other amount of pleasure having done it- no matter how much.
On the other hand, in case of all other natural needs (say, hunger or lust), one can feed the desire only 'that much'. After that threshold, the same enjoyment becomes a pain. I may be quite a gourmand, but I certainly cannot eat, say, more than 5 or 6 kg of food everyday, no matter how much I Iove it. I may also be quite a stud, but I cannot imagine more than, say, 5 or 6 love-making episodes every day (or night) of my life, even if it were with my own desired mix of new and old partners!
Of course, you are at liberty to change the '5 or 6' to '1 or 2', or '15 or 16', to suit your own presumed level of capability. However, no one in his right mind can think of taking this number much higher, say, to '5 million or 6 million'.
However, I can always accept (or, make) more money than I can ever hope to be gifted (or, to make). I will be happy with Rupees 10 thousand. I will also be happy with Rs. 10 million. So, also, with Rs. 10 billion, or 10 trillion. The only thing I will fail in, is in visualizing what that money actually means!
Further, at lower end, money meets our needs; at higher end, it merely feeds out greed -- or desire to amass more and more, and still more, personal power, prestige and status.
There is thus, clearly a fault-line running deep in our monetary system -- the same thing fulfils our needs, as well as gives us power and prestige. Not so, with anything natural. My food is there for me to enjoy filling my stomach; my love-partner is there for me to feel sexually fulfilled. Neither exist to give me my primary power, social status or prestige in my life.
Thus, I feel that unless we can correct this problem in current human civilization's visualization, we will keep rewarding people for over-exploiting other people, other species, and our dear mother -- our Earth. Sooner or later, something will give, and we will be left with nothing to show for this failure to imagine money in the 'right' way.
A relatively simple, yet effective way would be to make money non-fungible: money in the hands of a rich person, above a legally sanctioned limit, will not behave the same way as money under that limit.
Since, everything today is controlled and monitored, and at least theoretically, all large transactions subject to regulation, it should not be so difficult to put a stricture that money above this defined threshold can only be enjoyed, but not used for making personal empires or dynasties. That is, above that threshold, the wealth-holder will only be able to spend that money on their enjoyment, but not for creating further wealth, or for bequeathment.
A bridge to that situation can be built through replacing the inflation tax with Wealth Tax- such that the same amount is generated for the government, but is levied, not upon all (as is the inflation tax), but only upon those, whose wealth has crossed that threshold.
The threshold, need not be completely arbitrary, but can be seen as the earning of a lifetime of (minimum wage) toil- presuming that minimum wage will always reflect the income required for a life lived with human dignity.
I also, sort of, continue the development of my definition of money, that it is a "claim on resources", or, alternatively, a "claim on human labour". I am now modifying the definition to read: "Money is a claim on resources in human custody".
Figures are available at the end of the presentation.
Also, the figures are available for (jpg) download on...
http://owaisvasundhara.blogspot.com/2011/11/tstrm-figures-used-in-dd111111-on...
owais, vasundhara, owaisvasundhara
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4:57
DD_111219- میرا سچّا دین کیا ہے؟ / मेरा सच्चा दीन...by owaisindiakhan59 views
@vidaripollen...
AB-SO-LUTE-LY...
Completely agreed. I prefer to do exactly that!
However, unfortunately, the reigns of the world are in the hands of people who are not so clear-headed as us. They tend to run after various kinds of power, among those, money. And, also unfortunately, they have spread the disease far and wide. I try my little bit in healing people...
owaisindiakhan 3 months ago